By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
The year “2022” and all its incarnations – visually, aurally and numerically – was “too” good “to” pass up as a theme for this year’s annual quilt show, organizers said.
The 39th annual Ocean Wave Quilters Quilt Show with the theme “Two/To/Too” opens 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, and runs through May 15 in Whitmore Hall on the SJ campus.
After the Friday opening event, hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. May 7-14, and 11 a.m.-3 p.m. May 15.
The Mother’s Day Tea, a tradition for quilters, their families and quilt enthusiasts, will be held noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday. Sitkans and visitors are invited to stop by Whitmore for tea and a treat, and to stroll through the quilts on display.
The quilt exhibit is on the first floor, but in addition the rooms in the historic dormitory will be open for display of the new and old quilts on the bunks, beds and walls.
One thing has remained consistent in the nearly 40-year history of the Ocean Wave Quilters’ show:
“We have no repeats,” said Janine Holzman, the organizer of the show and nationally known quilt designer and quilter.
Janine Holzman holds up one of the dozens of quilts that will be on display in Whitmore Hall
on the SJ campus as part of the annual Ocean Wave Quilters quilt show.
(Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
Holzman was in the process of figuring out what goes where in time for the Friday opening when she gave the Sentinel a preview of this year’s works.
The quilters obviously had fun with the theme, and there’s no shortage of interpretations, Holzman said. Although the theme is Two/Too/To, some went farther.
Using steganography, Holzman put hidden words in a few of her designs. One has “Too,” “Two” and “To” hidden in the pattern, another has Roman numerals and Morse code. At least one quilter went straight to “tutu,” with netting attached to quilted fabric.
Holzman started the quilt show after teaching a class at Islands Community College in 1983. The idea was for the students to showcase their work to the public, showing off what they learned. While only a few had finished quilts in time for the show, Holzman found enough of her own and others work around town to fill out the exhibit room at Harrigan Centennial Hall.
“It was mostly older quilts from around town,” she said.
The show has been at Whitmore Hall the past several years.
Popular attractions at the show are the “slice” quilts, in which an image is cut into several sections, either as blocks or slices. Quilters take a section of the picture to do their own interpretation of the image. When they are finished the images are pieced together for a quilt. Since no one sees what others are working on, it’s always a surprise when it comes together.
“We have some of these, and they’re really spectacular,” Holzman said, holding one up of flowers at a window, belonging to Joanna Perensovich. “Isn’t it gorgeous?”
Another features the Lori Adams food truck making a delivery to Ludvig’s Bistro on Katlian Street. A third depicts a pulmonaria.
At the front of the exhibit are some mosaic quilts from a class taught by Nancy Jo Bleier.
Longtime sewer and quilter Julia Smith combined hundreds of small cut pieces to create a quilt with the image of a sewing machine in a style similar to that of a tile mosaic.
“You use tweezers to put them on,” she said.
Smith has been sewing since age 5, using a tiny hand-crank metal sewing machine when she started. She’s been a quilter since the mid-1990s, after taking a class from Sabra Jenkins, who always contributes works in the annual quilt show.
“She’s a really good quilter and teacher,” Smith said.
Admission to the show is free, but all are invited to buy a $10 ticket for a drawing for one of two quilts, one created by Ocean Wave Quilters during the year, and the other a donated vintage quilt. Proceeds go to the Sitka Cancer Survivor’s Society.
A separate but related show, the Ocean Wave Quilters Guild Mini Quilt Show, will be up through May at the Backdoor Cafe, 104 Barracks Street.
